Plan aimed at student housing

November 18, 2008|By MARTI GOODLAD HELINE Tribune Staff Writer

SOUTH BEND -- A proposal to amend St. Joseph County's zoning ordinance is aimed at owners of residential properties who want to rent to students. The matter is scheduled to be discussed by the Area Plan Commission at 3:30 p.m. today at the County-City Building. The proposal includes changing the ordinance to allow group residences as a special use for which a permit would be needed in single-family residential areas. Group residences would specifically include student housing, said John Byorni, executive director of the Area Plan Commission. Also included under group residences would be halfway houses, work-release houses or any other similar form of residential housing for individuals who do not qualify as a family. The idea to change the ordinance came last month after owners of two rental houses near the University of Notre Dame unsuccessfully tried to get their property rezoned as planned unit development, which allows student rentals. The county requires that no more than two unrelated people may live in a single-family residence.